Advance

The night, not entirely dark, shone like a dream under the glow of the Sea of Flowers.

The Flower Spirits danced around the air conditioning vents of their bird's nest homes. Shawa Shawa diligently taught Du Ke the Flower Spirit language while chatting happily. Perhaps it was because those who trespassed into this Sea of Flowers were either ferocious predators or docile herbivores, making it difficult to find anyone to converse with, that Shawa Shawa treated Du Ke with exceptional friendliness.

"Is 'Advance' your way of growing, or your way of cultivating?"

"I don't know."

"When did you Advance? Do you Advance when you reach a certain age?"

"No, I Advanced in my second summer. Many Flower Spirits don't Advance even after ten summers."

"Can you Advance further?"

"Hmm..." Shawa Shawa pondered seriously before answering uncertainly, "I don't know, but I have a feeling. I feel like I'll Advance again someday. When I Advanced before, I was the same age as Borg Borg and the others. Now I'm older than them, and I'll get even bigger. Does that count as Advancing?" Shawa Shawa then asked Du Ke.

"That definitely counts as Advancing. By the way, how long do you live?"

"I don't know, but Xise Xise does." Shawa Shawa called Xise Xise, who was still riding the Displacer Beast Spirit, over. "How long do Flower Spirits live?"

The Displacer Beast Spirit was magical, exhibiting human-like movements. It licked Xise Xise with its tongue before lying down in the blue reeds. It was nothing like its fierce self when alive, instead giving off a sense of sanctity. Xise Xise flew to the window, crossed her arms, and quickly spoke a sentence in the Flower Spirit language. Du Ke didn't understand, so he had to rely on Shawa Shawa to repeat it.

"She said she has lived through twelve summers and twelve winters. She has seen many Flower Spirits who only lived for ten summers. She also said that before me, the old leader of the Sea of Flowers Tribe lived for thirty summers."

Du Ke suddenly understood. "So, ordinary Flower Spirits live for ten years, and Advanced Flower Spirits can live up to thirty years."

At this moment, Xise Xise spoke another sentence in the Flower Spirit language. Shawa Shawa translated for her: "She said I'm not the leader yet. The old leader was twice my size, had a crown made of petals on her head, and knew three magic spells... Hmm, I only know two."

After a moment of thought, Du Ke made a judgment.

Shawa Shawa was likely in the midst of her second Advance.

The Flower Spirit growth system: Ordinary Flower Spirits possess Purification Magic and are about the size of a palm. After the first Advance, their pistils transform into a magic staff, granting them a second Nature Magic, and their size becomes about one and a half palms. Then, after the second Advance, their petals degenerate into a crown, granting a third magic spell, and their size becomes about three palms. There's also an intermediate stage of Advance, which is Shawa Shawa's current state, where their size is about two palms.

"Ask her what the old leader's magic was."

"The old leader knew Purification, Nature Growth, and Thorn Tentacle... Thorn Tentacle can grow a thorny vine from the ground. It's very powerful when swung. A huge beast runs over, and it can bind and kill it directly." Xise Xise gestured animatedly, her small eyes filled with admiration. Clearly, the old leader was a very charismatic Flower Spirit.

Just as Du Ke was about to ask for more information about the old leader, he suddenly looked up at the sky.

The stars had disappeared. In their place, another moon had appeared in the sky at some point. Based on its position, the previous moon was in the zenith, and this one was in the east. He couldn't help but be surprised, and immediately asked Shawa Shawa, "Are there two moons here?"

Shawa Shawa looked at the sky and said normally, "Sometimes one moon, sometimes four moons. Mostly two moons. The most I've ever seen was six moons. It was as bright as day at night."

"Six moons!"

Du Ke was first shocked, then chuckled, his heart at ease. Since the Fantasy World had two suns, why couldn't it have six moons? It was just a few more satellites. He recalled reading a popular science article stating that Saturn had 83 moons, and there might be even more undiscovered moons in its rings. Jupiter also had 79 moons, with potentially undiscovered ones as well.

"Are all these moons big?"

"No. The biggest are these two. The smallest are about the size of stars."

"I see..." Du Ke felt that the Fantasy World might not necessarily have six satellites. Moons as small as stars could be other planets in the system. For example, on Earth, Venus can be clearly seen. The Morning Star and Evening Star are Venus, sometimes appearing in the morning, sometimes in the evening. "I need to observe more before I can say."

With that, he materialized his astronomical telescope and began observing the moons in the sky.

The moon in the zenith quickly appeared in the lens. There was no atmosphere, and he could directly see the surface of the celestial body, pitted and covered with craters, similar to astronomical images of Earth's moon. The moon in the east was different. Du Ke discovered that this planet was actually yellow, with varying shades of yellow on its surface, and also had craters and undulating mountain ranges.

"Hmm, I wonder what the yellow is. Could it be a gold ore vein?" Du Ke shook his head and put away the astronomical telescope. He wasn't an astronomer. Even if he saw what the two moons looked like, he wouldn't be able to figure anything out.

And so it went.

It was already past midnight, and the Flower Spirits were still full of energy, but Du Ke was starting to feel sleepy.

He signaled to the Flower Spirits to do as they pleased and then lay down on the bed, preparing to sleep.

He also said to Shawa Shawa, "Alert me if there's any danger."

Shawa Shawa nodded in agreement.

With a group of innocent and lively Flower Spirits accompanying him, Du Ke could finally sleep soundly for the night, without worrying about the Magic Beasts of the Fantasy World ambushing him. However, despite being very sleepy, lying in bed, he still couldn't fall asleep immediately. His mind was a mess with too many thoughts—Flower Spirits are humanoid creatures, so are the Mushroom People living in mushrooms also humanoid?

With Flower Spirits and Mushroom People, could there be even more intelligent beings?

Have these beings already developed advanced civilizations?

This is a Fantasy World filled with magic. If there is also advanced civilization, the native "humans" must be incredibly powerful. Even with the Mind Armor as his reliance, he still felt insignificant.

Especially after witnessing the battle between the Behemoth and the Stegosaurus Lizard, he became even more convinced that this world was dangerous.

A five-meter-tall Behemoth and a ten-meter-long Stegosaurus Lizard. If one of them sat down, even without magic, the Titanium Alloy Nano Armor would be crushed. If there were even more powerful Magic Beasts, Du Ke couldn't imagine how he would fight them. Frankly, he was just a Lucky One who had received a cheat, without the talent or ambition to conquer the world.

Going with the flow, shuttling back and forth between two worlds, and getting rich was his original intention.

He didn't want to lose his life.

"Although the Fantasy World is wonderful, Earth is still better. At least on Earth, I don't have to worry about survival... I wonder if the paper I published in the Journal of Chemical Physics caused a sensation, and if the paper submitted to Physical Review B was accepted." With these jumbled thoughts, accompanied by the dancing and frolicking Flower Spirits, he soon fell into a deep sleep.